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The Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Engagement and Academic Outreach and the Office of Research Development & Communications will host the second UNH Writing Academy for tenure-track, Extension and research faculty interested in advancing their scholarly careers.

Faculty members selected for the Writing Academy are immersed in a summer-long learning community where they interact with peers and senior colleagues to learn successful strategies focused on writing, reflection and critical feedback. As Academy participants, faculty members will commit to write and submit a polished writing piece for publication or develop a competitive grant proposal submission.

UNH will host two lectures this spring about the Vietnam War. The lectures are sponsored by the department of history and the Center for the Humanities, and made possible with support from the Dunfey Endowment at UNH. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Accords, which divided Vietnam.

On Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014, Hang Nguyen of the University of Kentucky will present "Spies, Allies, Murder! The New International History of the Vietnam War." The lecture starts at 4 p.m. in MUB Theater II.

An associate professor of history, Nguyen specializes in the study of the United States in the world as it relates to Southeast Asia and the Cold War. She is working on her second book project, which explores the role of gender, people's diplomacy, and transnational networks of anti-war activism during the Vietnam War era that draws on...

By the time most people are 25, they have made the most important memories of their lives, according to new research from UNH.

Researchers at UNH have found that when older adults were asked to tell their life stories, they overwhelmingly highlighted the central influence of life transitions in their memories. Many of these transitions, such as marriage and having children, occurred early in life.

"When people look back over their lives and recount their most important memories, most divide their life stories into chapters defined by important moments that are universal for many: a physical move, attending college, a first job, marriage, military experience, and having children," said Kristina Steiner, a doctoral student in psychology at UNH and the study's lead researcher.

The research team also included David Pillemer, Dr. Samuel E. Paul Professor of Developmental Psychology at UNH; Dorthe Kirkegaard Thomsen, professor of psychology and behavioral sciences at...

While theater may be one of our most ancient forms of human artistic expression, David Kaye’s latest project was anything but old-fashioned. Kaye teamed up with N.B. Aldrich and the University of Maine’s Intermedia MFA program to present “eStranged,” a 21st-century response to Albert Camus’s “The Stranger.”

Originally published in 1942, the novel explores themes of existential philosophy, societal systems of control, and alienation. “We are arguing that the systems of control that Camus discussed have shifted to the Internet,” said Kaye, co-author and co-director.

On Feb. 20, lecturers at UNH’s Durham and Manchester campuses voted to unionize. The UNH Lecturers United - AAUP will serve as the exclusive representative for all Durham and Manchester lecturers for the purposes of determining wages, benefits and other terms and conditions of employment.

Two hundred and three lecturers were eligible to vote, and 164 cast ballots in the union election which took place on Feb.12 and 20.The election results were 141 in favor of union representation, 23 votes for no representation. The NH Public Employee Labor Relations Board is expected to certify the election results sometime after the expiration of the five day objection period.

UNH is prepared to move ahead and bargain in good faith. Candace Corvey will serve as UNH’s chief negotiator.

I. Roll – The following senators were absent: Morgan, Shannon, and White. Raina Ames was proxy for Kinghorn. Kazura was excused. Lisa MacFarlane was a guest.

II. Remarks by and questions to the provost – The provost briefly reviewed for the senate the Board of Trustees’ meeting held January 29-30 at Plymouth State. The Board reviewed capital projects in preparation for requesting state appropriations for those projects. She said that Ham-Smith is still at the top of that list for improvements. She mentioned the Educational Excellence portion of the meetings in which reports were presented on academic quality metrics, a range of items reflecting...

An expert from the UNH Center for Family Business will discuss how to understand conflict styles at a Wednesday, March 5, 2014, event at Granite State College.

“Managing Conflict in Family Businesses” begins at 8:30 a.m. at Granite State College, 25 Hall St., Concord. Registration and coffee start at 8 a.m. Lunch and networking will follow at noon.

Bill Hassey, business consultant and senior lecturer in the UNH department of management, will discusshow understanding how people manage conflict—in different situations and with different people—is the first step to handling conflict successfully.

“Effective conflict management builds trust within the family and employees, increasing creative problem solving and productivity. This interactive workshop helps individuals understand their own conflict styles and the styles of those around them, and how their styles change depending on their conflict partners,” said Barbara Draper, director of the UNH...

Tell us about you scholarship in Latin America. How does it connect to sustainability?

I study the impact of crime on politics in Latin America. In the region the issue of crime is very, very important, as skyrocketing crime rates have crippled the ability of democratic governments to respond to the needs of the people.

UNH is the new home of the Clean Air-Cool Planet Climate Fellows Program and the Campus Carbon Calculator. Clean Air-Cool Planet will be dissolving in 2014, but two of its signature programs will live on at the Sustainability Institute at UNH.

Developed in partnership with the Sustainability Institute in 2000, the Campus Carbon Calculator is used by thousands of campuses and institutions across the United States and abroad to track their greenhouse gas emissions. More than 90 percent of the U.S. colleges and universities that publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions use the calculator. In partnership with Sightlines, a new online version also exists called CarbonMap (the Carbon Management and Analysis Platform).

Since 2008, the Climate Fellows Program has been attracting undergraduate and graduate students from across the country to work on high-priority...

“It’s not just about creating knowledge; it’s about creating knowledge that actually leads to action, not a report on a shelf.”

That is the goal that Kevin Gardner, professor of civil engineering and Faculty Fellow in the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Research, strives to reach through the field of sustainability science. Gardner conceptualizes and organizes interdisciplinary teams to work collaboratively to accomplish the goal of educating and inspiring action towards sustainability in the environment.

His interest in this field began at a young age, when a calculus teacher suggested he put his problem-solving skills towards a career in engineering. While he was...

For two weeks in December, the UNH Institute on Disability's Therese Willkomm, along with occupational therapy graduate students Emily Hames and Vanessa Tocco, traveled to India to promote the continued development and use of low-budget assistive technology for people with disabilities. Faculty members at the Padmasri Dr. B. V. Raju Institute of Technology (BVRIT) in Narsapur invited Willkomm to visit with the hopes of providing students with a hands-on approach to assistive technology.

During their time there the team conducted 12 hands-on assistive technology workshops to more than 1,000 students and faculty members at three different colleges where participants were introduced to assistive technology solutions and then challenged to design and build their own solutions. The team visited BVRIT in Hyderabad – College of Engineering for Women, BVRIT in Narsapur, and the Sri Vishnu Educational Society in Bhimavaram.

A 90-year-old relationship protecting and nurturing privately owned New Hampshire forests was celebrated and extended recently in a renewal of a commitment between UNH Cooperative Extension and the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Developments’ Division of Forests & Lands.

The new memorandum of understanding allows Cooperative Extension to continue supporting the stewardship roles of private owners of forested lands. John Pike, Extension dean and director, Jeffrey J. Rose, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development, and Division of Forests & Lands state forester Brad Simpkins signed the memorandum at the New Hampshire Farm & Forest Exposition in Manchester Feb. 7. The first agreement...

I. Roll – The following senators were absent: Ballestero, Fagerberg, Morgan, Shore, Tenczar, and Ware. Bastera and Wible were excused. Lisa MacFarlane was a guest.

II. Remarks by and questions to the provost – Provost MacFarlane opened her remarks by reminding the senators that the January 31 deadline for nominees for faculty awards is quickly approaching. She expressed that it is particularly appropriate for this body to take the time to submit those nominations and encouraged all senators to reflect on their colleagues whose work should be recognized.

The provost then spoke about the STEM summit to be held on February 5, 2014. UNH will...

Have American jobs become less stable? Do workers change employers more frequently than in the past?

Many Americans would probably say the answer to these questions is an obvious yes. Yet for the past few decades, researchers looking at the data haven’t been so sure: average job tenure (the number of years working for the same employer) has been surprisingly stable over time.

In a study published in the February issue of American Sociological Review, sociologists Matissa Hollister of McGill University and UNH’s Kristin Smith solve this puzzle by breaking out trends in job tenure separately for men and women and by marital and parental status. They show that men and never-married women have seen declines in job tenure, but this overall trend was masked by increases in the job tenure of married mothers.

The authors argue that these divergent patterns point to two fundamental shifts in expectations and behaviors in the U.S. labor market. The first...

John Mayer, the renowned UNH professor and psychologist who co-developed the groundbreaking theory of emotional intelligence, now reviews decades of research to introduce another paradigm-shifting idea: that in order to become our best selves, we use an even broader intelligence—personal intelligence—to understand our own personality and the personalities of the people around us.

Credit: UNH Photographic Services

John Mayer, psychologist and internationally recognized researcher who co-developed the groundbreaking theory of emotional intelligence, now introduces another paradigm-shifting idea: in order to become our best selves, we use an even broader intelligence—personal intelligence—to understand our own...